me talk pretty sad some daysI’ve liked but never loved David Sedaris.
Maybe that’s because my sense of humor, like my eyesight, is near-sighted. Others look at Magic Eye illusions and see their objects; I read Sedaris and can’t always spot the humor. Or, maybe I do blur my eyes correctly, and only those who can’t could find each Sedaris story funny.
After all, he’s culturally sanctioned humor for the NYer-reading crowd, who, going by the ugly and expensive tchotchkes advertised in the mag.’s margins, are especially prone to a humorless and self-congratulatory aesthetic. I wonder, too, how often admiration for Sedaris is presented like a calling card of the reader’s qualities — his/her kooky cultivation or honest individualism (though Sedaris’ books, as bestsellers, make any kookiness or honesty associated with them extra safe and palatable).
That being said, yesterday, Jessica Lee Jernigan posted about meeting Sedaris and linked to a recent interview she did with him, now up at Borders’ website. In the interview, which I read after writing the first part of this post, Sedaris himself comments on his reputation as a “funny writer”:
Like many an oddball past and present, Sedaris gets a lot of laughs, whether he wants them or not. He’s often regarded as a humorist, despite the fact that many of his stories are not particularly comical—some, in fact, are quite poignant. I asked him if he’s ever felt pressure to be funny.“Well, I used to, but then I think I found that when you have that reputation, then you don’t actually have to be funny—people will laugh anyway.”
When he said this, I laughed, thereby proving his point. He continued.
“You know, I go on these lecture tours twice a year, and the audience… they’re people who’ve gone out of their way to buy a ticket and to come to the reading. They’re not really your best judges. Your best judges are the ushers—they’re not there to see you. One night a friend of mine in the audience overheard one of the ushers say, ‘These people laugh at everything he says,’ which they were, and they do. It’s sort of discouraging when you realize that that’s the case because a lot of my work just isn’t that funny.”
I cringe when I hear live recordings of Sedaris reading his pieces to an audience. The laughter is so constant, it’s ridiculous. Sedaris did his rendition of the Oscar Mayer Weiner song (as Billie Holliday), which I always found more embarrassing than funny, and the crowd went apeshit. I think they collectively orgasmed.
Posted by Tobey at June 4, 2004 09:21 AMI’ve been reading Sedaris for years and for the most part, think he’s hilarious. However, I began to see where it all wasn’t supposed to be funny when I read an essay about his father where he hides bits of food in various and rather unlikely parts of the house for the purposes of eating it later. It starts off reading like it’s an eccentric quirk but ends up becoming more disturbing the behaviour becomes more and more obsessive and not terribly healthy as his father does in fact locate this rotting food months later and proceeds to eat it. It becomes clear that this is a very bad memory for Sedaris as he attempts to describe behaviour that, at the time, he didn’t understand.
I think his earlier stuff was more of a straight-out attempt at a humourous personal essay. Lately, though, it’s gotten darker and more personal. It’s not always funny but somehow, it doesn’t seem to matter. I like those stories just as much as “being an elf at Macy’s was crazy” or “I thought nudist resorts were wacky but they’re really not.” I think people attending his readings expecting wall to wall laughs would be disappointed.
It’s an odd line to walk when you’re using personal experience, specifically painful ones, for humour. It runs the risk of being maudlin and cloying but somehow Sedaris avoids that.
Posted by John at June 4, 2004 09:34 AMin the actual phone conversation, sedaris also mentioned how the secret to getting an audience to laugh is to use the word “fuck”. apparently, that cracks them up every time. he seemed to find this fact rather sad and inexplicable.
Posted by jessica at June 4, 2004 10:24 AMis it Border’s or Borders’?
Posted by LT at June 6, 2004 12:38 PMSilly me. It’s corrected now.
Posted by N. Chicha at June 6, 2004 01:40 PMHe’s no Eddie Izzard.
Or Julian Clary, for that matter.
Posted by Gwenda B. at June 7, 2004 05:42 PMis it really bad* that I actually commented on a potential punctuation mishap? I almost feel embarrassed by doing so, considering your content is what continually draws me here.
*and by bad, I also mean obnoxious and certainly uncalled for. :/
Posted by LT at June 8, 2004 10:40 PMLT —
No, I encourage corrections. I need all the help I can get re: passing myself off as literate.
Posted by N. Chicha at June 9, 2004 07:05 AM^^ ha! yeah, I bet that you have that problem often :P
In all actuality, I wasn’t trying to be fussy. I was just momentarily baffled. Heh.
Posted by LT at June 9, 2004 09:16 AMThe succeptibilty of mass suggestion aside, I find Sedaris’ books-on-tape hilarious, but the same stories, when written down, much less so. Have you tried listening to his stuff? There’s an attitude there that doesn’t totally come across in writing, which I, too, often “miss” without the additional guidance his reading gives it.
Posted by sam at June 12, 2004 12:02 AMI like Sedaris a lot (poor poor middlebrow me) but agree that he’s funnier in audio than in print. I found that effect even more pronounced when I read a book by David Rakoff. And I’ve never been able to bring myself to read Sarah Vowell at all.
David Sedaris, by the way, is the normal one in his family. His sister Amy is a total freak.
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